e said all you could against them. I should not
have listened to all you said; if I did, it is because we have known
each other these twenty years. Don't I remember well the rags you had
on your back when you came to this village. It ill becomes--"

Mrs. M'Shane got up and went out and Annie followed her to the gate.

The sounds of wheels and hoofs were heard, and the wedding party passed
by, and on the first car whom should they see but Kate sitting between
Pat and Peter.

"Good-bye, Annie. I see that Pat's coming to our dance after all. I
must hurry down the road to open the door to him."

And she laughed as she waddled down the road, and she could not speak
for want of breath when she got to the door. They were all there, Pat
and the piper and Kate and Peter and all their friends; and she could
not speak? and hadn't the strength to find the key. She could only
think of the black look that had come over Annie's face when she saw
Pat sitting by Kate on the car. She had told Annie that she would be
punished, and Mrs. M'Shane laughed as she searched for the key,
thinking how quickly her punishment had come.

She searched for the key, and all the while they were telling her how
they had met Pat at Michael Dunne's.

"When he saw us he tried to sneak into the yard; but I went after him.
And don't you think I did right?" Kate said, as they went into the
house. And when they were all inside, she said: "Now I'll get the
biggest jug of porter, and one shall drink one half and the other the
other."

Peter was fond of jugs, and had large and small; some were white and
brown, and some were gilt, with pink flowers. At last she chose the
great brown one.

"Now, Peter, you'll say something nice."

"I'll say, then," said Peter, "this is the happiest day of my life, as
it should be, indeed; for haven't I got the girl that I wanted, and
hasn't Pat forgiven me for the blow I struck him? For he knows well I
wouldn't hurt a hair of his head. Weren't we boys together? But I had a
cross drop in me at the time, and that was how it was."

Catching sight of Kate's black hair and rosy cheeks, which were all the
world to him, he stopped speaking and stood looking at her, unheedful
of everything; and he looked so good and foolish at that time that more
than one woman thought it would be a weary thing to live with him.

"Now, Pat, you must make a speech, too," said Kate.

"I haven't any speech in me," he said. "I'm glad enough to be h